February 16, 1923 - Rosh Chodesh Adar 5683 Edition
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE-PLEASE PRINT AND DISTRIBUTE IN YOUR SHULS!
The following article appeared eighty seven years ago, February 16, 1923, in "Dos Yiddish Licht", founded by the saintly Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l for the purpose of strengthening the observance of mitzvos, and to arouse the public concerning kashrut of foods, which at that time was very neglected, and sadly is not any better in our day and age.
The author was the great gaon and tzaddik, the "Shlucha D'Rachmona" of his generation, the "architect" of true Torah values in America, Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz zt"l, the founder of Yeshiva Torah Vodaath and Torah U'Mesorah.
(Translated from the Yiddish above)
"And if I say: I will not make mention of him nor speak anymore in his name then there is in my heart a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I weary myself to hold it in, but cannot" (Jeremiah. 20:9)
I use the above prophetic words as a preface to my article concerning kashrus, because this article will not bring honor to me. On the contrary, I will be attacked with ridicule from all sides. But what can I do? A fire is burning within me, and within a thousand Jews like me... A fire, which cannot be extinguished.
The kashrus question has recently been discussed in the Yiddish press, but only one side of the question, viz. concerning the unscrupulous butchers who sell treifos without a hechsher or with a false one. The press has remained silent, however, concerning the second side of the question, about the treifos being sold under rabbinical supervision and under rabbinical signs in butcher shops.
The press is silent about this problem, perhaps because of the honor of the rabbis, or, perhaps, because of other reasons. The honor of the rabbis is dear to me too. But, the honor of the Torah which is lying in the garbage, and the honor of the truth, which is trodden under foot, are dearer to me. Where there is chillul Hashem we do not impart honor to a rabbi, I, therefore come forward with an accusation.
I Accuse!
I accuse many rabbis, who grant hechsherim, who knowingly or otherwise, or out of neglect, permit non-kosher meat to be sold under their stamp of approval both wholesale and retail; the seller is an unscrupulous person with Torah sanction.
I accuse many rabbis, who although they themselves have no part in the hechsherim, nevertheless, know about them and still remain silent. There is a sort of mutual reciprocal agreement to keep quiet about each other's false hechserim. Perhaps it is because they wish to avoid chillul Hashem. They forget, however, that where there is chillul Hashem we do not impart honor to a rabbi.
I accuse the very great rabbis, the leaders of our people, because of internal strife. These disputes are not for the sake of Heaven; if one says that something is prohibited the other must say it is permissible, if one says something is contaminated the other must say it is pure. It is impossible to bring order to the chaotic kashrus situation, especially the chicken and meat markets.
I accuse the rabbis because of whose negligence; the laws of chalav akum have virtually been forgotten. I know that there various heterim for this, but they apply only when it is impossible to get chalav Yisrael. In our situation, however, with a little effort, order could be brought to this chaos, and "if one can be good, why should he be bad?"
I accuse our Orthodoxy, for sleeping the sleep of Choni Ha'maagil, who slept seventy years. They are completely unaware of what is happening around them and how our strongest ramparts are being smashed by our internal foes. They are unaware that all our holy traditions are being trampled underfoot, that our three thousand year old heritage has all but completely disappeared. Yet, Orthodoxy sleeps, but how much longer?
Do you know that all of the fortresses of Judaism, which have heretofore protected us from destruction, the only one left is kashrus, that other mitzvos are observed very laxly even in Orthodox homes? And now kashrus too is being smashed, yet we sleep, but how much longer?
Don't you see what has become of your youth? Don't you know that Jewish children have become tramps, gamblers, gangsters, candidates for the electric chair, and all kinds of "ISTS", only because they have been raised on neveilos and treifos, yet you sleep, but how much longer?
Don't you know that going to the mikvah every day to purify yourself will be to no avail? Not even all the waters in the world can help, not with sheretz tamei (a carcass of a creeping thing) in your hand, but inside of you! And when you daven every morning and evening, or when you learn your daily shiur, don't you know that the breath that emanates from your mouth is the breath of sin because it reeks of neveilos and treifos!? Yet you sleep, but how much longer?
When you wash your hands for bread, or when you make Kiddush on Shabbos, and your table is bedecked with all sorts of delicacies, and you say with each bite, in honor of the Shabbos, you are angering Hashem when you break bread. Yet you sleep, but how much longer?
I know that you will reply, "Jacob is small and poor" But look what Jacob's brother on East Broadway has accomplished, how he erected a fortress through the poor laborers, a fortress against Judaism, because he has united forces. Yet you sleep and do nothing, but how much longer?
Gentlemen! Do a little soul searching and see how far you have strayed; remember that our parents have sacrificed their lives for kiddush Hashem; they allowed themselves to be burned in order to uphold our holy Torah, whereas you are not required to make any sacrifices; with but a handful you can save the situation. Yet you sleep, but how much longer?
Fellow Jews, have you no fear for the great and terrible Day of Judgment? In that day you will no longer be able to come up with excuses or with a shrug of the shoulder.
And I ask you "how much longer?" And I say, "you sleepers, awaken from your slumber!"
Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz
56 comments:
What's the "fortress on Broadway" that R. Medelowitz refers to?
JWB says:
Pedophile Rabbi Bryan R. Bramly (accused of raping a 7-year-old girl and arrested earlier Tuesday in synagogue parking lot) has ties to the following communities.
1) Toronto, Ontario around 1983.
2) Involved in Congregation Emanu-El Victoria, British Columbia around 1998 also a lay Jewish chaplain at University of Victoria and host of a Jewish radio program.
3) Western Canada (1980s, 1990s?)
4) Jerusalem (Jewish quarter), Israel (outreach to college students traveling and studying in Israel) (late 1990s, early 2000s?)
5) Clearwater, Florida (unknown)
6) Temple Beth Am, Margate, Florida (featured speaker in 2000 while a Rabbinic student)
7) Jewish Theological Seminary around 2000-2006 (received ordination), New York, New York
8) Manhattan, New York from 2001 to 2003 as assistant to Rabbi Stephen Friedman at Congregation Ramath Orah.
9) Rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom, Stratford, Connecticut from 2003 to 2006
10) Rabbi of Tempe Beth Sholom of the East Valley from 2006 to present and had connections to Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert, Arizona (synagogue moved). Taught at the East Valley Jewish Day School (EVJDS), formerly the Barness Family Jewish Community Center Day School.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/dining/24fcal.html
Tabla’s version of Seder, the unleavened bread bar, 11 Madison Avenue (25th Street), will be held on March 30 at 6 p.m., with an informal service, $95 plus tax and 20 percent service, $50 for children 10 and younger: (212) 889-0667.
Handmade round whole-wheat shmura matzo for Passover, made in Brooklyn and supervised by Rabbi Avron Keller, who also oversees the kosher kitchen at Le Marais, will be sold in the restaurant’s retail shop, 150 West 46th Street, through April 4; $30 for a one-pound box.
http://amashgiachspeaksout.blogspot.com/
It seems that the OU mashgiach at Le Marais who helped cover up the treif and attacked Yitzchak Bitton on the blogs is giving a private hashgacha on the matzas
http://www.tablany.com/files/menus/dinner.pdf
At Tabla he doesn't have to cover up because they openly list pig & shrimp on the menu
Dos Yiddisher Licht is a pornographic publication which is why Rabbi Kolodny was directed to purge it years ago from the Agudah archives.
Is anyone willing to bet that no entity affiliated with Agudah, OU, Artscroll or YWN would reprint this from R' Shraga Feivel?
The ADL & Southern Poverty Law Center should add them to the list of revisionist historians.
No chance that any "establishment" rabbonim will allow this up on the walls of their shuls.
As far as that Conservative rabbi child rapist arrested in Arizona, there will be some justice meted out before he is extradited back to NY.
The Maricopa County Sheriff is so tough on criminals that the Liberal Left from around the country has been rallying to get rid of him for the last 10 years.
The jail is open concept with no air conditioning in the 110 degree desert heat, topped off with sandstorms.
There is no TV. Inmates are given pink underwear. They are fed baloney sandwiches every day. They are given hard labor.
Anything new with Tropper?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_DCGOA_RlajQ/S6i25eX7InI/AAAAAAAAE5U/K3N6raQNR4Y/s1600-h/fish-worms-psakim.jpg
Belsky is in Israel either this week or for Pesach, to try to convince Rav Elyashev to change his mind about this psak.
Gershon Bess from Los Angeles has already tried and failed.
What's the "fortress on Broadway" that R. Medelowitz refers to?
*
The Workmen’s Circle or Arbeter Ring (אַרבעטער־רינג)
The Ramat Bet Shemesh community for allowing thugs like malinowitz, Kornfeld and Perlstein to hold court and power over them.
http://www.nytimes.com/
Warned About Abuse, Vatican Failed to Defrock Priest
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
11 minutes ago
Top Vatican officials, including the future Pope Benedict XVI, did not defrock a U.S. priest who molested as many as 200 boys, even after warnings from bishops, files show
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/business/economy/25social.html?hp
Social Security to See Payout Exceed Pay-In
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: March 24, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/business/24leonhardt.html?hpw
In Health Bill, Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: March 23, 2010
In effect, healthy families will be picking up most of the bill — and their insurance will be somewhat more expensive than it otherwise would have been.
The real level of taxation is what the government (Obama) has to recoup for out of control spending.
Bank of America said on Wednesday that it would begin forgiving some mortgage debt in an effort to keep distressed borrowers from losing their homes.
The Obama administration is also studying whether to provide more help to people who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.
Bank of America’s program may increase the pressure on other big banks to offer more help for delinquent borrowers, while potentially angering homeowners who have kept up their payments and are not getting such aid.
The program is aimed at borrowers who received subprime or other high-risk loans (guess what kind of people get those)
Steve Walsh, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, Ariz., who said he had just abandoned his house and several rental properties, called the program “another Band-Aid.
Archie Bunker said...
The ADL & Southern Poverty Law Center should add them to the list of revisionist historians.
Maybe once, a long time ago, the SPLC did something worthwhile, now they're just another left wing pressure group.
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — A psychologist testifying in a $14 million lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America says the organization put boys at risk by hiding information about child molesters among troop leaders.
Gary Schoener, a national expert on child sex abuse, told a jury in Portland on Wednesday that confidential files the Boy Scouts kept on suspected abusers from 1965-1984 were the deepest and most complete information about pedophiles then available in the country.
He said the organization showed a reckless indifference by not sharing the information with parents and authorities.
Attorneys for the Boy Scouts of America say the organization kept files on suspected molesters to protect children.
onionsoupmix
03:15 pm: Announcing a New Gemach!
A little while ago, a few blogs started posting that some gedolim were supporting Elior Chen, the abusive monster who was recently extradicted back to Israel.
I thought this was made up and that no one in his right mind would support a lunatic like Chen.
Yesterday, Rabbi Slifkin's blog reported that these reports were not invented and that Rav Chaim Kanievsky specifically noted that he signed the letter because "על כתב שרבותי חתומים גם אני חותם- On a letter that my rabbis are signed on to, I also sign."
So let's summarize. A Gadol Hador signed a letter in support of a horrific child abuser because his co-rabbis also signed this letter.
After thinking for some time about this, I realized that these people clearly need all the zchusim they can get. And so, in the combined zchus of Elior Chen and the gedolim who signed his letter, I hereby announce the opening of the Gedolei Hador Sechel Gemach.
This gemach will not loan clothing, food or household items. No chassunah dresses or sheitels, no extra beds for your guests and no interest-free loans.
This gemach is exclusively to provide our leaders with sechel and morality when they need it most. Common sense, intelligence and independent critical thought are not always available to our rabbinical leaders. These qualities are hard to come by and often in short supply. Morality, ethics and courage to do the right thing are also desperately needed character traits that more and more gedolim seem to be missing. We as a community must provide! Who else will fill this gaping need? And we will do it lesheim shomayim, for a zechus in honor of Elior Chen and his rabbinic supporters.
So please, dear readers. If you have any gently-worn common sense or extra critical thinking skills that you don't need right now, please consider a tax-deductible donation to our gemach! As you clean for Pesach, you might come across some dusty morals, almost-new ethics or minimally-used courage in the back of your closets or under the beds. Do not throw these out! Our gedolim need them!
Hours and location by appointment only.
Tags: crazy, criminals, morality, rabbis
Passover Hagaddah conclusion “Next Year in Jerusalem” deemed “unhelpful” by Obama administration
March 23, 2010 By The Associated Press Shana Habbab (AP White House Correspondent)
(AP) — An unidentified Israeli official has confirmed that private discussions between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu included a strong request from the President that the upcoming Passover holiday not include the familiar refrain of “next year in Jerusalem”, citing the passage as being provocative and unhelpful for future peace talks.
The Administration suggested replacing it with “next year in peace” or “next year in Israel”, but leaving the final wording up to both the Israelis and Palestinians.
Netanyahu is said to have balked at the request, indicating that the refrain dates back well before the UN Partition of 1947. The Prime Minister reportedly attempted to diffuse the situation by noting that the declaration lacks any political significance, adding that most people living outside of Israel just “say the words without having a real desire to live anywhere in Jerusalem.” He further explained that, “at most, they would like to come for the Passover holiday, but only staying at one of the hotels located in western part of the city.”
Anything new with Tropper?
Last I heard he was planning to move to the valley (San Pornando Valley) and to start a career as actor in Threeway movies.
All we can say is Behatzlacha Rabba
UOJ, I remember this article well when you first posted it, and thank you for the re-post. It wil always resonate, throughout my entire life, and very strongly. Noteworthy is that Reb Mendlowitz twice takes "the press" to task. He recognizes the need for a vigorous Jewish press unafraid to confront rabbis, and the compelling issues of the day. The Yiddishe Licht is itself press, and Reb Mendlowitz does not sit on a Rosh Yeshiva's perch, unwilling to speak through the press to the people. I have reprinted the Yiddish article, and I have pasted, copied, and printed your translation, and I thank you for that as well. I will read it aloud to my children at seder. I want them to learn these lessons for life. Every father should. And if no father is present, every mother should. And if no parent is present, someone should.
Nikolsberg Rebbe, brother of convicted molester
Brotherly love
By Michael Orbach
Issue of March 26, 2010/ 11 Nissan 5770
The biblical question about a brother’s keeper has reemerged in the conviction of Baruch Mordechai Lebovits on March 8. Lebovits, who will be sentenced next week, was convicted on multiple counts of sexual abuse and may serve up to 30years in prison.
Lebovits is the brother of the revered rebbe of the Nikolsberg chasidim, Rabbi Yosef Yechiel Mechel Lebovits, known as the Nikolsberg Rebbe.
When he paid a visit to the Young Israel of the West Side this past Shabbat, some activists clamored for him to address the subject of his brother’s wrongdoing.
“Communal leaders, ranging from Chasidic to Young Israel, can no longer remain silent about either the molesters themselves, or the cover-up,” said Elliot Pasik, an attorney and president of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children. “Child abuse thrives in darkness. A 53-year-old convicted child molester like Baruch Lebovits wasn’t made overnight. What’s been happening all these years?” he asked.
The Nikolsberg Rebbe is regarded as more attuned to modern life than many of his peers. His chassidus pays for ads on Google to draw visitors to the well maintained website it operates. The rebbe’s secretary, Moshe Friedman, declined a request for comment.
Mark Weiss, a prominent sexual abuse survivor and activist recalled that the Nikolsberg Rebbe spoke at the shloshim gathering 30 days after the death of Shua Finkelstein, a Lakewood teenager who died of a drug overdose in
2009. In a letter Finkelstein wrote before his death, he described rampant sexual abuse in his community: “99% of all kids from lakewood – Yes lakewood our holy town who doesn’t allow text messaging– were molested in this town!!!!” (Sic)
“It’s great that The Nikolsberg Rebbe was at Shua Finkelstein’s shloshim talking about drug abuse but he unfortunately completely missed the opportunity to address the real issue: sexual abuse, which caused Shua to turn to drugs in the first place,” said Weiss.
“I think that if the Nikolsberg Rebbe is trying to come off as an upstanding citizen and concerned about children, I think the man needs to say what’s right at the risk of going against his brother.”
Shelly Fine, a trustee of the Young Israel, and a victim of sexual abuse as a child, offered a different opinion.
“If the Rebbe’s brother was just convicted of such a horrible crime, it must be terribly painful for the Rebbe. It is unreasonable to expect the Rebbe to speak out about this issue at this time. Furthermore, those who have gone as far as condemning the Rebbe for the reported crime of his brother are wrong,” he explained via email. “How many people would be unjustly subject to condemnation if they were held responsible for the actions of their brothers?”
Let us analyze the weak and bizarre quote from Shelly Fine, delivered by email. He had time to think and consider his words.
"Shelly Fine, a trustee of the Young Israel, and a victim of sexual abuse as a child, offered a different opinion.
'If the Rebbe’s brother was just convicted of such a horrible crime, it must be terribly painful for the Rebbe. It is unreasonable to expect the Rebbe to speak out about this issue at this time. Furthermore, those who have gone as far as condemning the Rebbe for the reported crime of his brother are wrong,' he explained via email. 'How many people would be unjustly subject to condemnation if they were held responsible for the actions of their brothers?'"
"If" the Rebbe's brother was just convicted? Its not an "if", its a fact.
Later on, the "reported crime" of the brother. Again, despite the conviction - and two other pending criminal cases by the way - its not an actual crime, its a "reported" crime.
It is "painful" for the Rebbe. No expression of concern for the victim.
"Unreasonable" to ask the Rebbe to speak out "at this time". Brother Baruch was arrested and indicted months ago. Now he's convicted. How long do we wait? If not now, when? Hillel.
The real doozy is when Shelly dissembles. People should not be "subject to condemnation" for the "actions of their brothers". Here, Shelly is accusing the activists of demanding vicarious liability - one brother is guilty for the sins of the other. That is not so, and if it were, it would be wrong. The activists raise the question of cover-up, because Baruch Lebovits is a 53-year-old child molester, and his brother is head of the community. Shelly does not respond to this point.
People sometimes don't grasp the evil and horror of child sex abuse, even, here, a victim. Shelly Fine is more concerned about defending the reputation of his synagogue, the Young Israel of the West Side. He tries to plant the seeds of doubt in people's minds about molester guilt, and the cover-up. When the next case comes along, people will view that case through the prism of Shelly's Fine's views, and others like him. Despite his status as a victim, he is an impediment to progress.
Posted by: Pinchos Dov | March 25, 2010 at 08:57 AM
Excellent idea my dear chaver Elliot.
All parents should do the same indeed. The Seder is an opportune time to talk about the survival of the Jewish people.
Each era has its challenges; children must be taught to speak up on any perceived wrong, parents must be taught to listen to their children.
RSFM was a very young man when he went up against all kinds of odds and was fearless -- the Jewish people have survived because of such examples of leadership.
May we truly become a free people, free from any kind of slavery of the soul and the mind -- from the various evils that has gripped our communities and is choking the precious life out of it.
Amen!
A Haredi Mah Nishtana For Child Sexual Abuse
Why is the sexual abuse of haredi children treated differently than all other communal issues?
This was written by the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children:
Mah Nishtana: The Four Questions of Our Children, Some of Whom Are No Longer at the Seder
Why is the sexual abuse of children treated differently than all other communal issues?
1) In all other areas of halacha (Jewish law), the highest level of tznius (modesty) and morality is enforced, but in this area of halacha - the destruction of children is ignored.
2) In all other areas of kashrus, the highest level of reliability, certification and supervision is demanded, but in the sanctity of our children's own bodies - no serious nor expeditious regard is given.
3) In all other matters, halacha as interpreted by the poskim is followed, but when our senior poskim urge victims of sexual abuse to report their abusers to the police - these poskim are ignored and victims are vilified in favor of supporting the molesters.
4) In all other areas of a child's life, organizations fight and demand for their rights (e.g., lobbying for busing, textbooks, school lunch programs, tuition credits) but when it comes to the sexual abuse of children - some of the same organizations turn a deaf ear and lobby to protect the abusers of our children.
And a fifth question:
How many more sedorim must pass and how many more neshamas must we lose, before we are finally allowed to go Mavdous Lcheirus, from slavery to true freedom, from our own children's oppressors?
Whenever I see the Anthony Wieners, Chuckie Shumers, Barbara Boxers, Rahmbo Emanuels, David Axelrods, Henry Waxmans, and Al Frankens of the world, I am disgusted.
Reb Michoel is a yid himself and was born as Michael Alan Weiner
Shelly Fine is a modern day kapo, probably in his past life he was collaborating with the nazis against his own people. He is my buddy !!!
RE: The Gedolei Hador Sechel Gemach:
Great Post! Thanks for the laugh!
:D
Re: Reading Reb Mendlowitz' article at the Pesach Seder:
I think one of the actual mitzvos from the Torah on Pesach is "V'higadeta L'bincha".
Which is kind of interesting, being that it has become more of the other way around with the kids having been prep-ed with all these Divrei Torah from school to spew back at their parents.
Maybe during the day meals, Shabbos or the Second Days a parent can get a word in, and give over some pieces of wisdom - like the lessons from this article by Reb Mendlowitz.
Thank you UOJ for translating the article and putting it up here for us.
May each of us, in our own way, have the strength to stand up against Rabbinic abuses, cover-ups and fraud as Reb Mendlowitz did in his time!
The rav of Young Israel of the West Side (while Rabbi Gettinger takes sabbatical to write a sefer) is Rabbi Cohen.
Rabbi Cohen used to be assistant rabbi at Rabbi Yudin's shul in Fair Lawn when Baruch Lanner was treated like a VIP there.
Everyone jumps to their defense that Lanner is a psychopath that duped them, but what did these rabbis know and when did they know it?
(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Friday announced a $14 billion effort to slash mortgage payments for the unemployed.
http://chabad.info/index.php?url=article_en&id=18128
On March 11, Mr. Lewin petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the decision of the lower courts denying Mr. Rubashkin bail pending his forthcoming sentencing. He has now taken the additional step of making a direct application to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who presides over the Iowa judicial district in which Mr. Rubashkin’s case is being heard, to grant Mr. Rubashkin his immediate release on bail pending his sentencing and appeal.
”We are deeply concerned about the seeming pattern of overzealous prosecution in this case,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, executive vice president of the National Council of Young Israel.
Similarly, Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, reported that “the volume of e-mails and phone calls we have received about the Rubashkin case has reached a loud crescendo in recent weeks, as the full horror of how he is being singled out for harsh treatment has become strikingly clear.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703734504575125810048582020.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments
The downside of the Kosher-for-Passover vacation:
At the same time as these food-fests of multiple-24/7-tea-rooms, 18-hole PGA courses, pseudo-intellectual lecture circuit darlings, and Jewish "rock-star" quality entertainment proliferate, the leaders of Orthodox Judaism, from whose flocks these programs draw, keep complaining about the effects of the economic slowdown on Jewish giving and the high costs of Jewish life. Yet, nothing is more offensive than listening to complaints about the high costs of Jewish Day School tuition from people sunning themselves between rounds of barbecue, pseudo-sushi, and tennis lesson scheduling. To which I recently wrote to the publisher of a major Jewish magazine who had jumped on the bandwagon of "it's expensive to be Jewish" kvetch-du-jour.
The battle between serving others and ourselves must be tempered by a re-evaluation of the institutional structures we have created and which have become our masters rather than servants and which have contributed to the crybaby syndrome of "it costs so much to be Jewish". For example:
1. Day schools' proliferation of non-teaching positions, inefficient redundancies and superfluous programs, and tolerance of incompetence justified by not taking away someones' "parnussah"
2. Synagogues treating rabbis as full-time employees rather than assuming they would also teach in yeshivot, day schools, or secular institutions.
3. Multiple organizations to effect the same policies and programs - with the obscenity of maintaining staffs of phone-solicitors, secretaries, etc. The various women's Zionists organizations are among the most offensive, with their goal of "Saving the youth of Israel, One Journal dinner at a time".
4. Groups like "Tomchei Shabbos" which provide high-cost, Jewish-sourced prepared meals for the nominally unprivileged rather than giving them supermarket vouchers to be used for low-cost products.
5. Synagogues devoting their budgets to more paid staff rather than encouraging real efforts on the part of their members; this includes a portion of the adult education efforts which are now inflated by the one-hand-washes-the-other system of incestuous "scholar-in-residence" programs where each rabbi gets an honorarium from 5 or 10 other synagogues while his own is similarly burdened with third-party costs.
6. Misdirection of charitable efforts to ensure that like a major league baseball team, no city can consider itself "complete" without its own Holocaust memorial.
7. Subsidizing of "jewish studies" programs in hundreds of colleges with few if any jews.
The same people who complain about the high costs of being Jewish would never consider cleaning their homes for Pesach and cooking a few chickens; rather they mouth off against Yeshiva tuition while spending more on their 5-star Passover Vacations with 18-hole golf courses and 24-hr tearooms with wall-to-wall Food Network Ace-of-Cakes creations.
Go back 100 years, or even 50. The costs of being an observant Jew were tangible - jobs, housing, and basic education were all tests of one's commitment to observance. Now these costs have been transformed into the luxury-to-necessity changes which the "I'm a victim" generation have has used to justify its self-indulgence at the cost of helping others.
http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-paterson-role-covering-up,0,832888.story
NEW YORK (WPIX) - A new development in a scandal already surrounding New York Governor David Paterson could provide evidence leading to criminal charges against him, and it could even lead to him stepping down.
Paterson, himself, helped to write a statement he wanted the victim of a reported domestic violence incident to endorse.
http://koshertube.com/videos/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=4&task=videodirectlink&id=4508
not sure how they keep the camera screen clean with all the slobbering and frothing at the mouth
http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2248857
Passover Profiteering
>I accuse the rabbis because of whose negligence; the laws of chalav akum have virtually been forgotten. I know that there various heterim for this, but they apply only when it is impossible to get chalav Yisrael. In our situation, however, with a little effort, order could be brought to this chaos, and "if one can be good, why should he be bad?"<
What's so terrible about non-cholov-Yisrael milk? I and my kids use it extensively and we seem t ohave much better midos than almost all the holy rollers I know of.
http://www.hospitality-industry.com/index.php/news/comments/18006/
‘Passover Seder For Dogs’
http://www.evangersdogfood.com/about/kosher_list.html
The following thirty products have been endorsed by the Chicago Rabbinical Council as acceptable for use by those who observe Jewish Law, and are free from any chometz
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/lincolnwood/news/2130043,lincolnwood-sher-040110-s2.article
A Lincolnwood couple have pleaded not guilty to charges of stealing more than $1.7 million in gas and electricity to run their gourmet pet food company, which was featured on the Rachael Ray food show.
Joel Sher, 54, and his wife Holly, 52, who live on Navajo Avenue, entered a not guilty March 24 to charges of felony theft and money laundering in Cook County Circuit Court, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's office. State's Attorney investigators also seized $2.3 million in a Chicago bank belonging to the Shers as part of an ongoing money laundering investigation.
The Shers were accused of tampering with the gas meter at their Wheeling business, Evanger's Dog and Cat Food Co., 221 Wheeling Road, to prevent it from registering the appropriate amount of gas used at any given time, according to the charges filed.
"The brazen nature of these thefts is exceeded only by the dangerous conditions that these individuals were willing to expose their employees to," said Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.
If found guilty of the felony theft of more than $500,000 alone, the Shers will face a sentence of between four and 15 years in prison. Joel Sher was released on $250,000 bond and Holly, $200,000 bond, but they were also ordered to surrender their passports. The case was continued to April 14.
MiTsu Yun kosher restaurant in Chicago under CRC.
What are they doing open at this hour, catering to lowlives?
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/03/man-who-stabbed-another-man-16-times-in-custody.html
A Skokie man has been charged with stabbing two people when a fight broke out between two feuding groups at a West Rogers Park restaurant.
Syed Akbar, 27, of the 9300 block of North Lawler Avenue in the suburb, was charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery in connection with Sunday's fight at the restaurant at 3010 W. Devon Ave.
A 25-year-old Morton Grove man was stabbed 16 times in the chest and back. A 26-year-old Woodridge man was stabbed twice in the stomach and neck, said Police News Affairs Officer Laura Kubiak. Both were reported in serious condition at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston.
More than a dozen people from two feuding groups were involved in the fight that led to the stabbings, police said.
Police said Akbar got into an argument with someone at the restaurant, left and then returned with some friends. A fight then broke out.
The nature of the argument wasn't known. The incident happened about 4:50 a.m.
http://daashedyot.blogspot.com/2010/03/dayeinu.html
At a survivors seder the second night someone repeated a thought of Rabbi Finkel of Chicago. In Vehi She'amda we mention that in every generation there are those standing up against the Jews to destroy them, but Hashem protects the good Jews from the hands of those trying to annhialate them.
Rabbi Finkel explained that the root of the hatred of all those against the good Jew is his sense of morality and ethical compass. As long as a good Jew fights against immorality and follows traditional Jewish ethics he will be hated and despised by the majority of society, because it makes the immoral and unethical masses feel uncomfortable knowing that they have abandoned morals and ethics, this feeling creates guilt which results in hatred against the moral and ethicakl Jews who are trying to be good Jews.
The forces of wickedness are still active in the Jewish community, but there are finally moral and ethical people willing to stand up against them who are willing to take the abuse and ridicule from the evil Jewish establishment. We are well aware of good Jews being fired or threatened to be fired from positions because they took a stand to help children or complained against unethical practices, but they stood up anyways because the know that Hashem is a more sure bet than any millionaire board member whose life and money can be taken in a split second. When we read about the brave children willing to seek help from the legal community and not be scared from threats, intimidation, and mafia style behavior of the frum community, that gives us hope.
UOJ readers, it's not good enough to be readers, it's time to be active and stand up for morality and ethical behaviors. When you are a marked man because of your stance, then Hashem will protect you from the hands of evil and be your personal escort through life. It isn't an easy thing to do, but Jewish survival depends on it.
(Reuters) - Pope Benedict, accused by victims' lawyers of being ultimately responsible for a cover-up of sexual abuse of children by priests, cannot be called to testify at any trial because he has immunity as a head of state, a top Vatican legal official said on Thursday.
(Reuters) - A Hindu holy man with thousands of followers across India resigned as head of a religious organization on Tuesday after police began investigating his role in a sex scandal, officials said.
Video footage allegedly showing Nithyananda Swami, head of Dhyanapeetam, or "knowledge center," frolicking with two women angered hundreds of devotees who tried to ransack his center outside the southern city of Bangalore this month.
The 32-year-old has denied any links to the women and said the tapes were doctored, but the police are investigating and have asked people to come forward with evidence.
This month has been particularly bad for India's self-styled holy men with Indian police arresting one for running a brothel involving air stewardesses and college students, while charging another with kidnapping a minor.
Nithyananda Swami, who has big politicians and movie stars as devotees, announced his resignation in a statement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/garden/01horseradish.html?pagewanted=print
The Romans carried horseradish to Europe as a medicinal herb and as a flavoring. It was cultivated in Egypt before the exodus of the Hebrew slaves around 1500 B.C., and is often the symbolic bitter herb at the Passover Seder.
By the 16th century, the pungent root was spreading throughout England. “The Herbal or General History of Plants,” by John Gerard, first published in 1597, describes its many uses, including as an aphrodisiac, a treatment for tuberculosis, a mustard plaster and a dewormer.
Pliny the Elder wrote about horseradish in his “Natural History,” an epic work of 37 volumes completed in A.D. 77, in which he observed that it healed sores, mange and ulcers.
The common name, according to Mr. Tucker and Mr. DeBaggio, probably evolved from the German “meerrettich,” which means sea-radish (the plant grows wild in coastal areas), which was misunderstood by the English, who associated “meer” with “mahre,” an old horse.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/world/europe/03church.html?hp
ROME — A senior Vatican priest, speaking before Pope Benedict XVI at a Good Friday service, compared the world’s outrage at sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church to the persecution of the Jews, prompting angry responses from victims’ advocates and consternation from Jewish groups.
The Vatican spokesman quickly distanced the Vatican from the remarks, which came on the day Christians mark the Crucifixion. They underscored how much the Catholic Church has felt under attack from recent news reports and from criticism over how it has handled charges of child molesting against priests in the past.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Travelers from 14 (Muslim) countries that have been home to terrorists will no longer automatically face extra screening before they fly to the U.S.
http://www.queerty.com/whats-with-the-undercover-nypd-cop-screaming-faggot-outside-a-black-gay-bar-20100402/
What's With the Undercover NYPD Cop Screaming 'Faggot' Outside a Black Gay Bar?
http://www.forward.com/articles/126970/
100 Years Ago In The Forward
The meat boycott that has engulfed New York City has really heated up. After a dramatic increase in the price of kosher meat, women, worried they won’t be able to stretch their husband’s wages to provide their families with food, have organized boycotts of local butchers. The women manning the picket lines in Brooklyn have girded their loins; those on Forsyth Street, in Manhattan, are getting organized, and the Bronx is already locked up. In Manhattan’s Harlem section, hundreds of women are out picketing butcher shops. Fist fights have broken out because the butchers keep calling for the police, who have been clubbing the women with nightsticks. But by midday, not one single butcher shop in Harlem was open. When police rushed the hundreds of women picketing the East 102nd Street chicken market, the women fought back. A number of them were arrested, including Fanny Caplin, Annie Itzkowitz and Sadie Visser. Each woman was fined $1 for rioting.
A LEAP TO FREEDOM
IN MEMORY OF MOSHE MENACHEM KANOVSKY ZT"L - [THE THIRD YARZEIT] - PART 1
It was at the same time hilarious and loathsome to bystanders. On Friday afternoon, April 13, 2007 (two days after Passover 5767), a 31-year-old ultra-Orthodox lawyer jumped to his death from a 69th-floor office of the Empire State Building in NYC. "Only in New York," said a yokel bus driver, "Only in New York." Visiting tourists dashed to the 33rd street to take pictures of the leg severed below a knee, which sluggish cops didn't cover right away. Theresa Colon, a tourist from Virginia, shrieked: "I cried and got sick to my stomach, I pray he knew who God was."
That lawyer knew who God was. He knew it a lot better than silly southerner Ms. Colon would ever know. I know it because that lawyer was a gifted Jewish scholar and my long time chavrusa at the Ner Yisroel of Baltimore, Moshe Menachem Kanovsky zt"l. I recollect the sleepless nights we spent in Bais Midrash going over and over Gemara with Rashi, Tosafos, Rishonim, Acharonim, and Shulchan Aruch. Moshe Kanovsky polished off many masechtos and knew many Mussar books by heart. Moshe Menachem had really earned his Semicha (the rabbinical ordination).
The New York bus driver was also dead wrong. Not "only in New York." In fact, it started in Baltimore, at the Ner Israel Rabbinical College. And I know it started with rabbi Moshe Eisemann. I reminisce how he would unflaggingly approach Moshe Menachem, I recall that Moshe frequented him on Shabbosos. Was Moshe Kanovsky raped by rabbi Eisemann? I can't say for sure. And I will not make it up about my beloved dead chaver merely to get some people "excited" with the new evidence against gay and pedophile rabbi Moshe Eisemann. But something happened. And it happened when Moshe Kanovsky was a student at Ner Yisroel, and it had something to do with rabbi Moshe Eisemann.
Moshe Menachem suddenly became withdrawn and stopped coming to seder. Through much of the day he slept in his dorm room or listened to Rush Limbaugh's talk show. On one occasion he decided to pour out his heart to one of his rebbeim whom he trusted a lot - rabbi Shraga Neuberger. After that Moshe Kanovsky got even more disheartened. What did "rav Shragi" tell him? I talked with Moshe and his roommates who knew about that conversation. This is the story: rabbi Shraga Neuberger (his shaggy beard still proudly displaying bits of his last dinner) laughed off Moshe Menachem's plea for help and added with an acrimonious wink, "I wonder if you will ever find a shidduch (get married) in your lifetime!" I bear witness that those were rabbi Shraga Neuberger's precise words.
A LEAP TO FREEDOM
IN MEMORY OF MOSHE MENACHEM KANOVSKY ZT"L - [THE THIRD YARZEIT] - PART 2
Shortly thereafter Moshe Kanovsky left Baltimore for New York City. I doubt that Moshe went there with an intent to be with his father Yaakov. He was always closer to his mother and siblings who lived in Silver Spring (his parents got divorced in Philadelphia when Moshe was eight). Most likely, he assumed that he would get help from his famed uncle rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe and head of the Agudath Israel of America. Later I discovered that the Rebbe didn't help Moshe Menachem. Was that because his nephew was less important for "der Rebbe" than his relationship with the powerful NIRC, Agudath Israel, and rabbi Moshe Eisemann? I believe so.
Moshe was an educator, a rabbi, a lecturer, Jack-of-all-religious-trades but not a lawyer. Law was never his passion. He had to go to the Cardozo Law School because ostentatiously holy NYC and Baltimore rabbis with much blood on their hands were afraid of his lofty moral standards and did everything in their power to keep him out of the "klei kodesh" field. They also did an outstanding job to fulfill rabbi Shraga Neuberger's after-dinner "prophecy" ("I wonder if you will ever find a shidduch in your lifetime!"). But anyhow Moshe Menachem spent most of his free time learning Torah and helping poor people in NYC with free legal advice and Torah classes.
I had never been a big fan of conspiracy theories, muckraking, or sensationalism. However, I was wholly unprepared to learn about Moshe Kanovsky's suicide. I knew him well as a highly intelligent, kind-hearted, and soft-spoken soul, who knew fairly well even prior to becoming a rabbi what the Jewish Law warns about suicide, and I doubt he could have done it even taking into consideration possible manic depression / post-molestation effects. Likewise, as stated by the newspapers, all his family and friends didn't notice "any significant changes in his emotional state, even as he started working part-time for an attorney in the Empire State Building."
Many posters on the Internet acknowledged that he didn't jump but was pushed out of the window as it appeared from the security cameras' footage. At first it sounds crazy and distorted, but reason out who was that last "client" whom Moshe saw before abruptly interrupting his meeting with him and going to "another room" to jump out of the window? Why were there wrangling statements from Moshe's law firm denying that he ever worked there? What's more, two days prior to Moshe's death, right after Passover, the Vaad Harabbonim (Rabbinical Council of Greater Baltimore) mailed their infamous letter to the members of Baltimore's Orthodox community on the issue of sexual abuse. Moreover, Moshe Menachem died on the day the Baltimore Jewish Times published its cover story on the contemptible sexual predator rabbi Ephraim F. Shapiro!
A LEAP TO FREEDOM
IN MEMORY OF MOSHE MENACHEM KANOVSKY ZT"L - [THE THIRD YARZEIT] - PART 3
Questions. Questions with no definitive answers... We want to rid our religion of child molesters, but we disregard the fact that they are not pure rapists. They deliver inspiring lectures, possess a compelling writing style, raise generations of students, establish important connections. Make an effort to uproot these potentates! The iniquitous child-molesting rabbis groom many disciples wholly saturated with their venom who later occupy positions of authority to safeguard their teachers. A parallel comes to mind with the students of the wicked Balaam (who was a sexual pervert too and, according to Sanhedrin 105b, even had relations with his donkey). Balaam's disciples of today also fit nicely with their definition in the Mishna in Pirkei Avos (5:22) as having "an evil eye," "an arrogant spirit," and "a greedy soul."
A small number of people cover up for rapists because they sincerely believe the molesters were slandered, other craven underlings lick the ass of the mighty and powerful because they are no different than them. We know that a person who is a sexual predator or enabler flouts his own religious doctrines. That's the reason the Agudath Israel is a cringing supporter of all Catholic bills - the people whose ancestors were systematically tortured to death and burned at the stake by that very Catholic Church itself!
Eisemanns are covered up by hobnobbing Ner Yisroel and Baltimore Mafia leaders because they are one and the same: all of them need to live in luxury edifices, take expensive vacations, and be "respectable." Learn from the Agudath Israel! That name means "a bundle" or "a bunch" in Hebrew. In truth, they do work like a bunch of thugs. We also need to group together. Until that happens, we will be ignominiously defeated every step of the way! Firing single email shots from behind your browser can't help a great deal. We need to establish an incorruptible, powerful, and brave organization outside the Internet. We need a place to go to where we will never be betrayed by our leaders who are in reality self-appointed narcissistic cowards!
Until that happens, we will be doomed. What happens when you speak up in Baltimore against the "religious" atrocities of explosive, disgruntled, but still "infallible" leaders, who effectively hold all power in their hands? You will be chased out of all shuls by their NIRC-dependent bellowing from the pulpit mealy-mouthed rabbis, ostracized by the indignated and held in thrall to the establishment "community," get threats in the mail, and face mud-slinging and character assassination. You will be forced out of town like rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau's daughter who was molested by her dad. Because at this point in the real (not virtual!) world only these criminals have the real dominance.
• • •
The gist of Passover is freedom. One very unwell person on the Internet made a crafty calculation that Moshe Kanovsky was falling down from the Empire State Building for 4.9254203994149455 seconds. It's really irrelevant if Moshe Menachem jumped himself or was plunged by mobsters, because we know who is responsible for his death, which in actuality started many years ago at NIRC. But I believe that in those final five seconds of his short bright life he (like the Jewish children in the days of the Talmud who jumped off the Roman ship to drown themselves in order to escape molestation) was really free. Free from rabbi Moshe Eisemann's sexual improprieties, free from rabbi Shraga Neuberger's sardonic laughter, free from his uncle's hypocrisy. Free from that heinous tinged with cynicism lie that we now call "Orthodox Judaism," which is in reality inimical to every single thing the Torah-true Judaism stood for all the erstwhile generations of our pure grandparents. And those five seconds of freedom were worth an entire life in this world.
When ‘dayanim’, ‘rabbis’ and false ‘mekubalim’ use the Torah for their own power and commercial profit, this behaviour is abhorrent.
No other ‘rabbi’ will ever act against another ‘rabbi’ - even when he knows his colleague is clearly desecrating the Torah.
Each rabbi is only worried about losing his own position.
Therefore, the ‘rabbi’, ‘dayyan’ or false ‘mekubal’ (‘kabbalist’) will never effect justice. And he will never truly stand for the Torah or the Honour of Hashem. His pocket will always prevail.
The Torah must never be used for commercial gain and profit. Amm israel can only be lead by those who have the necessary love and respect of Hashem and the Torah.
Any man who chooses to be a ‘rabbi’ (‘true teacher’ of Torah) or a ‘dayan’ (‘judge’), or a ‘mekubal’ (‘kabbalist’) should be doing so Voluntarily. Out of his pure love for Hashem and the Torah. And his Ahavat Yisrael.
If he refuses to do community work voluntarily, and wants and accepts payment for everything he does, such a man should not be heading a community. He should get a job and earn a living. He can collect milk bottles or clean the windows. That is what is called ‘earning a living’.
Torah is learned, studied and taught: out of Love. Voluntarily. But the ‘rabbis’ have turned the Torah into their ‘Profession’, from which they earn money.
We are commanded in the Shema to:
‘LOVE Hashem, your G-d, WITH ALL YOUR HEART, and with all your soul and with all your might.’
‘VE’AHAVTA et Hashem Elokecha BECHOL LEVAVECHA uvechol nafshecha uvechol meodecha.’ (Devarim, Vaethanan, 6:4-5)
Is the ordinary man or woman PAID to pray to Hashem, or to say some words of Torah? No. Has veshalom! But the rabbis are. These men can give ‘lovely’ shiurim that they have rehearsed. But they would not give a shiur without being paid for it.
The true hachamim and rabbis of old, all actually worked at proper jobs and professions.
Wake up! Even a little child could have worked this out. These salaried men can never truly stand for the Torah, because in a case of conflict between a correct course of action according to the Torah, and the rabbi or rav’s pocket – his pocket and position will always prevail.
Pirkei Avot: (2:2)
“Raban Gamliel beno shel Rabi Yehuda HaNassi omer: yafeh talmud Torah im derech eretz, sheyegiat shenaihem mashkachat avon. Vechol Torah she’ein imah melacha sofa betailah ve’goreret avon. Vechol haoskim im hatzibbur yiheyu imahem leShem Shamayim……”
“Rabban Gamliel, the son of Rabi Yehuda HaNassi, said: It is good to combine Torah study with a worldly occupation, for working at them both drives sin from the mind. All Torah without an occupation will in the end fail and lead to sin. And let all who work for the community do so for the sake of Heaven………”
Post a Comment